I'm so excited about this new pendant style light shade we bought on the weekend. It's soooo lovely! Those crisply printed organic shapes on the the fabric are just so delicate to look at when it's lit up. So here is a pic of where we put it in the house and a close up so you can see a bit more of what I'm raving about.
A big belated thank you to Danielle from
Of Paper and Thread for passing on the Tree of Happiness award to me. To accept the award I have to list 6 things that make me happy. So here goes:
1. Saturdays
2. Sunshine on my skin in winter
3. Porridge cooked with fresh dates and served with cream
4. Lazy walks in the bush
5. Drinking tea on a quiet afternoon
6. Having time to doodle in my sketch books
And the lovely Lisa from
a little birdy told me tagged me and I have to list 6 unspectacular quirks of mine here. I like reading these things about other people so here is my effort to write something:
1. People tell me I'm super organised. I think that makes me sound a bit nerdy but I suppose that's ok. eg. I sent my dad a father's day card yesterday thinking that this Sunday is Father's Day but found out it's the following week. When I told my sister what I'd done she sent me a text saying: 'yep, that's cos you're so organised'.
2. I'm also told that I'm a very calm person by people I work with. But people who know me better can see that's not always the case....
3. I like plants and have quite a green thumb when I make an effort. But whenever I've tried to grow maidenhair ferns I've killed every single one of them. Which is a shame really because I love them.
4. I don't drink coffee and never have. For me that's not quirky, but to the coffee drinking masses of the world I'm a freak.
5. I got my very first mobile phone only 12 months ago.
6. I managed to live in a very tiny space (3 metres x 2 metres) without a bathroom in Kyoto for 7 years. It taught me a lot about what you really need (in terms of stuff) to live. Not much as it turns out.
The resulting print: 3 colour repeat screen print on calico of my slightly deco influenced flower motif. Do I have table envy of what after using that lovely long one again at I&S? Try as I might I can't replicate this amazing set up at home.
And this is what the block printed succulent blossom fabric was used for - pajama pants. And not even for me I might add.
It's really interesting how doing something repetitive for a long period of time can be strangely meditative. And I think it has to do with your frame of mind at the time and how you choose to see the task. This 1.7 x 1.2m piece of light-weight cotton fabric took me hours to block print my succulent blossom design yesterday afternoon, but oddly enough I enjoyed it. I didn't focus on my aching arms or the time. Instead I just went with the flow. I thought I might stop half way through and do the rest today but once I got into the rhythm it was strangely addictive. And moving about the fabric also kept me warm when I knew the room was becoming chilly. The hardest part was navigating a hungry cat who kept getting under foot for about the last 40 mins.
Day 2 of workshop - more layering of the prints we started on day 1. It was really freeing and playful to work like this. No plans, no expectations, just experimentation with a range of stencils we'd cut.
Day 2 repeat print - when I signed up for the workshop I decided that I needed to loosen up my usual design style a bit and that this would be a good chance to work quite differently. Get out of my comfort zone if you will. I usually work quite tightly and on a fairly small scale. So working with the banksia ink drawings I'd done on day 1 I decided to design a fairly loose abstract repeat pattern print with some of those ideas. I used a cotton base cloth that was 'stone' in colour. Choosing and mixing the right coloured ink to print with was challenging though. I think the colour I made was too light in the end - a pale pistachio. It think this design might look quite different if printed in black.
All finished as of this morning: hozuki screen print cushion cover. Printed on a natural cotton/linen blend fabric. I know the hozuki pattern is quite bold and might not be to everyone's liking but it sure does give that old green arm chair of ours a lift. We've been meaning to get that chair (and its pair) recovered for several years now. See this previous post for an explanation of hozuki.
I think I'm starting to get my printing mojo back. It's been missing a bit these last few months and I think it's because I've had so much writing to do for my other work that all my creative energy was going in that direction. So no mojo left for printmaking. But lately I've been getting out my tools and playing again. This makes me so happy.
A test run of the succulent design block printed on a natural linen/cotton blend. Pics are in B&W but I did use black ink. I still have to work on removing some of those textural bits that pop up with lino printing although I kind of like what it adds here. When I see a whole lot of the succulent images together in black like this it reminds of how the Australian bush can look after a fire. Have to go rest now as still not feeling super great and it's very hot today. No fires though as far as I know.
I'm so excited about this new pendant style light shade we bought on the weekend. It's soooo lovely! Those crisply printed organic shapes on the the fabric are just so delicate to look at when it's lit up. So here is a pic of where we put it in the house and a close up so you can see a bit more of what I'm raving about.
